The G8 used to be criticized as an evil capitalist group of powerful countries that determines world politics and economics without legitimacy like the UN. There has not been much of such criticism at this year's summit in Japan.

A note: If you're going to be in Austin for Netroots Nation, make sure you catch the immigration panel I'm moderating on Friday, and then be sure to swing by the happy-hour party we're throwing on Saturday. You can meet Atrios and Jim Hightower! Did I mention that the margaritas will be on AlterNet (and various co-sponsors)? It’s our way of giving (alcohol) back to the community and all that.

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So, CNN's Situation Room was on while I tried to burn some blubber at the gym the other day. Worked off 400 calories, and I think Wolf Blitzer knocked about five points off my IQ in the process.

The subject: McCain and Obama on foreign policy -- or FoPo, as we FoPo nerds like to call it.

One of the policies they touched on was McCain's proposal to kick Russia out of the G8. Blitzer had Very Serious Foreign Policy Analyst™ Fareed Zakaria on. Here's their exchange:

As the G8 conference comes to a close today, they have released their Statement on Global Food Security (link to full text, from the White House).

This is their response to the tragic food crisis.

So, let's take a closer look at the statement. It is in ten sections.

First, they remind us that this thing is bad, but they have already

taken additional steps to assist those suffering from food insecurity or hunger, and today renew our commitment to address this multifaceted and structural crisis.

Second, they remind us that they have already given $10 billion (U.S.) to fix the thing. And they ask that other people help to. They give a head nod toward localism:

We will also look for opportunities to help build up local agriculture by promoting local purchase of food aid.

I examine the other eight sections after the jump.

I know this is going to get lost in the Dennis the Menace impeachment proceedings (Go Dennis!), but GW left the G8 summit today with a celebratory fist pump, that damn smirk, and this:

Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter.

That's a direct quote. This guy can't even figure out how to talk to our allies in a constructive manner.

UPDATE: did not see this diary from MsLibrarian. my apologies.

Yes, he actually said that. Not as a complaint or an admission, but as a boast:

President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." UK Independent 10 Jul 2008

This does not seem to be getting much traction in the US press, surprise..surprise...

After draggind down any serious talks on carbon emissions and pollution control, George had something to say before he left his final G8 summet.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock

Bush insults G8

G-8 leaders got together today and pledged to cut "greenhouse" gas emissions by half by the year 2050.  

but [they] did not specify whether the starting point would be current levels or 1990 levels, and refused to set a short-term target for reducing the gases that scientists agree are warming the planet.

42 years from now.  In 42 years they want to see half the problem of today?  But of course, global warming doesn't work that easily.  You can't stop a problem by doing it 50% less 42 years from now.

*Cross posted at The Thorn Papers. Y'all come by now.*

Un-friggin-believable. Does no one, an image consultant or anyone like that, survey these plans and say, "Hey, y'all will look like the most horrible, hypocritical oligarchs imaginable if you do this?" And then, who releases the menu, and the fat-cat portrait? Or is the answer more simple: they are simply entirely disconnected from the world at large and/or don't give a flying shit?

In any case, the UK Daily Mail brings this report from the G8 Summit, where world leaders are discussing the global food crisis...while sitting down to an 18 course dinner, which followed a six course lunch:

You may have heard, "truth is stranger than fiction," and indeed, that often seems the case.  While that strange truth is usually just entertaining and innocuous, there are times when it is exactly the opposite... stupefying, shocking, even threatening.

Mimicking Ripley is not the intent here, though.  It is simply to point you to a variety of recent articles, some of which just bring a smile, some that give pause for thought, and some that deal with very serious issues.  Not surprisingly, many involve government and elected officials at various levels.

Aside from the trivial 'fun' articles, many are important but have been beneath the radar for whatever reason.  They need greater exposure, for they often have implications that scream for attention.

The entries here do not comprehensively quote their referenced sources, except for maybe a one or two line teaser that might pique your interest, and, of course a link, along with maybe short comment. Better that you follow the links and look in the horse's mouth yourself:)   Hope you enjoy.

Cheers:)

Tomorrow the G8 leaders will begin 3 days of meetings in Toyako Japan. Climaticide is one of the topics on the agenda, although analysts are holding out few prospects of any substantive agreements.

The indefatigable and ever optimistic James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has written a letter to Japanese Prime MinisterYasuo Fukuda, who is under pressure at home to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions, stressing the urgent need to cut CO2 emissions and eventuallyroll them back to 350 ppm or less.  The key element in Hansen's analysis is that to do this we must quickly phase out coal emissions.

Let's pretend for a moment that you are a country.  Well, the seminal head of a country, so to speak.  

As the mouthpiece and the conveyor of all information that the people of YOUR country would like YOU to communicate to the rest of the world, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to make sure you truly speak for your fellow countrymen and countrywomen with one voice that soars the virtues of YOUR country and it's ideals and passions!

OK, Hold that thought.  

G8 Crisis

More below:

When it comes to his foreign policy, John McCain is a revisionist historian and a particularly clumsy one at that.  Having asked Americans to ignore his record as the master of disaster on Iraq, John McCain similarly underwent an election-year transformation from rabid France-basher to born-again multilateralist and fawning Francophile.  Now, the McCain campaign is hoping to erase any vestiges of John McCain's 2007 pledge to expel Russia from the G8.

Back in the seventies I recall reading a harsh Australian government warning aimed at the Aboriginal population, which at the time was hopelessly mired in chronic alcoholism: "Adapt or Perish!". Although I thought it heartless at the time (since we not only introduced all things boozy to a people who had never tasted alcohol in their previous 60,000 years, their land was also taken from under their feet) it did convey a brutish, unmistakable message of "survivalism or else". That message, regardless of its bluntness, ought to be hammered, no, etched deep into all politicians' consciousness worldwide as we are facing a number of intractable problems, most of them resulting from decades of bad policies fostered on us by inept, possibly corrupt, greedy & non-visionary leaders.

What's more, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time, and as our own bonddad noted today, "the US’ current economic trajectory is unsustainable in the long run". So is the rest of the world. All it takes is a change of behavior.

In what was billed as a major address Tuesday on nuclear non-proliferation, John McCain offered the latest installment in the ongoing saga of strategic incoherence that passes for his foreign policy.  Just months after calling for a "League of Democracies" and the expulsion of Russia from the G8, McCain yesterday portrayed Russia as an essential partner in the global struggle to contain the spread of nuclear weapons.

On the Project Concern site, there's this message:

Here is a challenge to consider: tonight - for just one night - go without dinner; go to bed hungry. This act of conviction serves to remind each of us of the global emergency that is currently being described by the World Food Program as the "silent tsunami."

Imagine having to go without food for days on end as roughly a billion people do on a regular basis. Imagine having to put your kids to sleep at night hungry. How did we get to this point and what did the various governments in the world do to alleviate the hunger and the suffering? Not much, as most States still spend a large portion of their GDP, doggedly, in defense, shoring up armies and armament as if there's no tomorrow, still drawing invisible battle lines on the earth, water and space.

However, there is movement at the station, to paraphrase Banjo Paterson.

On his five nation swing through Africa, President Bush once again revealed the two inescapable truths of his AIDS diplomacy.  First, as I noted last May, Bush never hesitates to use AIDS funding to provide air cover in his failing struggle to sway global opinion.  And second, even thousands of miles from home, George W. Bush will kowtow to the religious right back in the United States.

Barack Obama will not only be America's first black President, but the first black President of any G8 superpower.

Another week of political cartoons, another cartoon roundup.  

CARTOON OF THE WEEK

Every day liberal cartoonists are hard at work, doodling while avoiding their real jobs and responsibilities.  Sometimes you see the results, and sometimes you don't.  At Left 'Toon Lane we think a cartoon is worth a thousand words, and that sometimes the Bush Administration is so perfectly ironic that only a cartoon can capture the reality.  This week seven different artists produced twelve different cartoons about today's politics.  I hope you enjoy them, and that you'll come to Left 'Toon Lane, not just for the jokes, but for art and artists to punch up your own blogs and publications.